US races against time to wrap up airlift ops
WASHINGTON: The US military flew more desperate evacuees out of the Afghan capital of Kabul on Monday in the waning hours of a final American withdrawal. The US government has promised to pull all its troops out of Afghanistan by Tuesday.
The focus of the US evacuation was increasing on getting the last Americans out. Administration officials said on Sunday that the United States has the capacity to evacuate the approximately 300 US citizens remaining in Afghanistan who want to leave before President Joe Biden’s deadline.
“This is the most dangerous time in an already extraordinarily dangerous mission these last couple of days,” said America’s top diplomat, secretary of state Antony Blinken.
The steady stream of US military jets taking off and landing at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul continued on Monday even after rocket fire targeted the airport and rockets hit a nearby neighbourhood.
The White House said on Monday morning about 1,200 people were evacuated from Kabul over the previous 24 hours aboard 26 US military flights and two allied flights.
US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Washington does not currently plan to have an embassy presence after the final US troop withdrawal. But he pledged the US “will make sure there is safe passage for any American citizen, any legal permanent resident” after Tuesday, as well as for “those Afghans who helped us”. But untold numbers of vulnerable Afghans, fearful of a return to the brutality of pre-2001 Taliban rule, are likely to be left behind.
Blinken said the US was working with other countries in the region to either keep the Kabul airport open after Tuesday or to reopen it “in a timely fashion”.
He said that while the airport is critical, “there are other ways to leave Afghanistan, including by road, and many countries border Afghanistan”. The US, he said, is “making sure that we have in place all of the necessary tools and means to facilitate the travel for those who seek to leave Afghanistan” after Tuesday.
There are roughly 280 others who have said they are Americans but who have told the US state department they plan to remain in the country or are undecided.
According to the latest numbers, about 114,000 people have been evacuated since August 14, including approximately 2,900 on military and coalition flights during the 24 hours ending at 3am on Sunday.
Members of Congress criticised the chaotic and violent evacuation. “We didn’t have to be in this rush-rush circumstance with terrorists breathing down our neck,” said Senator Mitt Romney.
The White House has rescheduled Biden’s meeting with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, from Monday to Wednesday as the US pullout from Afghanistan enters its tense final hours.